Anika Begay
By Sebastian Rocandio
VINHEDO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian authorities on Saturday were busy recovering the remains of passengers from a plane that crashed on Friday in the city of Vinhedo, near Sao Paulo, killing all 62 people on board.
At least 31 bodies had been recovered by 1 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) on Saturday, the São Paulo state government said. The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot had been identified, said Dario Pacheco, mayor of Vinhedo.
All the bodies will be transferred to the Sao Paulo police morgue.
Among the victims were a Venezuelan and a Portuguese, said Roberto Farina, a state civil protection official, adding that local consulates had already been contacted.
Regional airline Voepass said on Friday that the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew members, but on Saturday the company confirmed that another passenger was missing on board the flight, bringing the death toll to 62.
Authorities are using seat assignments, physical characteristics, identification and personal effects, such as cell phones, to identify the victims, firefighter Maycon Cristo said at the scene.
“Once we have collected all this evidence, we will extract the victims from the wreckage and put them in the vehicle that will transport them to Sao Paulo,” he said.
Relatives of the victims have been summoned to São Paulo to provide DNA samples to help identify the remains, said the state’s civil protection coordinator, Henguel Pereira.
The plane’s so-called “black box,” containing voice recordings and flight data, is being analyzed, Marcelo Moreno, director of Brazil’s Cenipa air accident investigation center, said at a news conference in Vinhedo.
The plane, an ATR-72 turboprop, was headed to São Paulo from Cascavel in Parana state and crashed around 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in Vinhedo, about 80 km (50 mi) northwest of São Paulo. Despite hitting a residential area, no one on the ground was injured.
The plane was flying normally until 1:21 p.m., when it stopped responding to calls and radar contact was lost at 1:22 p.m., the Brazilian Air Force said in a statement.
The pilots reported no emergencies or adverse weather conditions, the Air Force added.
Franco-Italian ATR, jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, is the dominant manufacturer of 40- to 70-seat turboprop regional planes. ATR told Reuters on Friday that its specialists were “fully engaged” in the investigation into the crash.
